Monthly Cycles
by hufflepuff4ever93
Summary: Harriet Potter, also known as Harry to her friends, gets her first cycle and has no idea whats going on due to the Dursleys neglect. She ends up going to McGonagall for help and as usual, things happen. Oneshot! Fem!Harry. (Go see Harriet Potter and the Philosopher's stone, the beginning to her full story!)


It had happened right after Hermione had told McGonagall about the firebolt. Really, Harry wasn't upset so much that Hermione had told the Professor and that her firebolt had been taken away, it was the fact that she had gone behind her back as though Harriet wouldn't have been able to wrap her head around the possibility that Sirius Black had sent the broom. It really was the matter of the ethics Hermione had used. It made her feel as though Hermione thought that Harriet was an idiot and needed help for the smallest of things.

It had happened right after curfew, she used the girls bathroom right before she had planned to go to bed and had seen the blood. It had terrified her.

Her first response had been to go to Hermione, but she realized that made her seem as though she did need Hermione's help for the smallest of things. It was really only a little blood. Her next response was to go to Ron, but this was most definitely a "girl thing" as Ron so elegantly called many of her and Hermione's girlier conversation and Ron would be unendingly awkward if it was yet another normal thing for girls that Aunt Petunia had neglected to tell her. Her next thought had been maybe Fred or George, but what if they played some prank on her, instead of helping? Percy was out of the question and she didn't even know the other prefects names. Hagrid was completely out of the question as well.

Harriet paced in the bathroom. It was after curfew. Harriet honestly had no clue what was happening. There was blood coming from _there_. Harriet blushed in shame. She couldn't just stroll down to Madam Pomfrey's even if she wanted to, and she avoided the hospital wing at all costs. She was there too much as it was. Who would be able to help her? What could she do?

"Think Harriet. Think." She muttered to herself. This wasn't important enough (and too embarrassing) to talk to Dumbledore about, but what about the other Professors? Snape and Filch were so far out of the question, they were part of an entirely different equation. It was after curfew, so she couldn't talk to the teachers or the heads of houses without losing points. She couldn't talk to Lupin, who was by far the best defence professor she ever had, but was probably not equipped for this problem that was scarier than any dark lord she had ever faced. Harriet twisted her hands nervously. She would have to talk to McGonagall. She hung her head. She wished fervently that she could just leave it be, but what if it just kept bleeding and bleeding? Harriet really didn't want to talk to her very stern head of house about whatever was happening to her, but what else could she do? Harriet would have to prepare to get points taken, but there was no other way. She sighed and left the bathroom to fetch her cloak and the Mauraders map in her dormitory.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" Harry whispered slightly hysterically to the map. She scoured the map feverishly to find the small label of McGonagall, which was pacing in her office. Harriet had decided to wait until the rest of her dorm was asleep before going for help. She waited until past midnight for Hermione to stop muttering about the ten most popular muggle pop-cultures. _Damn Hermione for her ridiculous studying habits_. Harriet waited another half hour then she checked the map once more. Thank Merlin that Mcgonagall was still in her office. Harriet quietly donned the invisibility cloak and left the dorm room. She had rehearsed what she was going to say to Mcgonagall for ages, but now, while walking down to Professor McGonagall's office, it all seemed so trivial. Harriet had checked again before she left in hopes that it had stopped. It hadn't. She was still bleeding, and it was genuinely frightening to her. Harriet dodged Filch and Mrs Norris by slipping through the corridor hidden by a tapestry. Harriet steeled herself as the professor's office came into view. Harry took off her cloak and hid it in her bag. It was a heavy door and she knocked quietly on it, steeling herself for the loss of points she obviously was going to be receiving.

"Enter" came the stern response from her knock. Harriet pushed open the door and stood quietly in the doorway.

"Hi Professor." McGonagall looked up, with a rather aghast expression on her face, which was quickly masked with her usual stern face.

"Miss. Potter. If this is about the firebolt-" Harriet cut her off quickly shaking her head rather violently.

"No Professor!" She was rather taken aback by the force she had put behind her response. Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow and waited for Harry to continue.

"Sorry Professor, it's just, I'm not here about the firebolt." Harriet hastened to reply, and to her horror, her face grew hot. She looked down hastily. She heard McGonagall sigh and shuffle some papers aside.

"Sit down Potter, and close the door behind you." Harriet did as she was bid, and sat in the chair opposite of McGonagall stiffly.

"Potter. There is a murderer on the loose. It would do you well to remember, while going against school rules." Harry nodded, feeling tears prick in her eyes at the admonishment. First Hermione thinks she's being an idiot, now McGonagall?

"Sorry professor. I wouldn't have come if it wasn't urgent, I would have talked to Hermione, but- well we had a fight."Harriet mumbled the last part. She wasn't proud of her fight with her best friend. McGonagall nodded once and asked

"Well, Potter. What was so urgent that you came out after curfew? What reason do you have that I shouldn't take points for your recklessness?" Harriet decided to just get it over with.

"I'm bleeding. I don't know what's wrong with me." McGonagall's eyebrows shot up in mild concern.

"You don't seem to be injured" Harriet felt her face get hotter if it was at all possible from this observation.

"It's, er, not from a cut or anything, It's well-I- er, I think I might be bleeding internally. You know, er- down _there_." Harriet said this all very fast, almost as fast as Hermione when she got talking about a subject she was passionate about. There was a long pause, then, to her immense horror, Professor Mcgonagall let out a small cough of laughter. Harriet looked up a fierce burst of anger.

"I don't see what's so funny about this!" She felt hot tears start to stream down her face as she spoke "I don't know what's going on, and it's been so bloody _scary_, I've been freaking out for _hours,_ wondering if Trelawney was right, if I was going to die tonight, I risked losing so many points for Gryffindor, and you're _laughing about it!_" Harriet realized then that she was shouting at a teacher, and not any teacher, it was McGonagall. Someone she really respected.

"I-I'm s-sor-rry Professor. I d-didn't mean to-" Harriet started to hiccup out, but McGonagall cut her off by pushing a plate of biscuits her way.

"Have a biscuit Potter." Harriet stared at her. McGonagall didn't offer biscuits to anyone.

"I'm alright, thanks." She said, slightly confusedly

"Take one Potter." Mcgonagall insisted rather firmly. Harry sighed and grabbed a ginger newt.

"Do you know about monthly cycles Potter?" Harriet looked up from her newt.

"What? Er-do you mean a potion cycle?" Why were those coming up? Did she mess up a potion? Was that why this was happening? McGonagall sighed.

"No Potter, I mean a woman's monthly cycle." Harriet frowned. She'd never heard about girls having cycles, whatever those were.

"No. Er- is this some sort of witch thing? Is that why I haven't heard of it?" McGonagall let out a small derisive snort and some muttered words under her breath. Harriet only caught a few which sounded something like

"Damn….. Muggles…. Bloody Albus….. I'll kill ..." Harriet wondered what all of this had to do with her bleeding.

"Take another biscuit Potter." Harriet really didn't want another, but took one more ginger newt reluctantly.

"All women have them. Not just muggles. It means your body is ready to have a child." Harry looked up in shock.

"But I don't want a kid! At least, not yet!" McGonagall gave her a small smile.

"And you won't, so long as you are smart about it." She then went on to explain many things that had Harriet blushing rather furiously throughout the whole thing. By the end of McGonagall's lecture, Harriet felt thoroughly embarrassed and as though she had been held upside down by Dudley for an entire hour.

"Potter, I have a question that may be rather personal." Harriet felt that it was a bit ridiculous that there could be something more personal than what McGonagall had just told her, so she nodded her head in affirmation.

"Why do you think your aunt hasn't told you about all of this?" Harriet winced. It was no secret to her that her aunt and uncle thought she was only useful when they made her do chores.

"Er-well-ah" She floundered for the right words.

"Well, you see, they don't like me very much." Harriet pulled her hands through her thick, unruly black hair, in an attempt to comb it down.

"They think I'm a bit of a waste of space, actually." She added quietly, looking down at her lap, not wanting to see McGonagall's expression.

"You are close with Molly Weasley, are you not? Did she not tell you about this either?" McGonagall's voice was carefully blank and calm. Harriet looked up at that. McGonagall just looked expectant.

"Well, she does have a bunch of other kids, all boys, other than Ginny you know. I don't think she really realizes I'm much of a girl. You know, I always try not to seem too difficult for her, and I'm not as girly as her or Ginny. She had me room with Ron when he and the twins broke me out of the Dursleys before second year."

"What?" Harriet cursed herself for adding on that last part. The Professor had become much sterner, her lips twisted down in that tight disapproving expression she wore when she thought someone had done something very wrong. _Merlin, when will I be able to keep my mouth shut?_ Fred, George and Ron were going to be in so much trouble. Harriet hastened to explain

"It wasn't their fault! Fred, George and Ron were just trying to make sure I was alright! The Dursley's had locked me in! It was a good thing they came with the car, because otherwise they wouldn't have been able to get the bars off my window!" _bloody hell Harry! Don't tell her about the bloody car! They'll be in so much trouble! _McGonagall's face, surprisingly, didn't show the twisted disapproving lips, but of concern.

"Bars on your window, Miss Potter?" Harriet normally would have shied away from the question, but to keep the Weasleys, the kindest, most wonderful wizarding family she had ever known, from getting into trouble, Harry would do almost anything.

"Er, yeah. Do you remember that levitation charm that Dobby performed in my house last year?" At McGonagall's affirming nod, Harriet continued.

"Well, they weren't too pleased that a pudding dropped on one of their dinner guests heads. I got locked in my room for a few days for that." Harriet shivered, remembering Uncle Vernon's purple face and the days of being locked in her room, some days without food when Petunia was feeling particularly cruel. On good days, she would have gotten a single tin of soup and a bottle of water in the middle of the day. She always had given half of everything she got to Hedwig during that awful imprisonment.

"And you didn't think to contact the school?" Harriet winced. Hedwig had been locked up for that summer and had gotten so thin during those days, even with the owl treats she had hidden in the loose floorboard in her room.

"Er- they weren't pleased that I got an owl during the school year either. They had her locked up at the beginning of the summer." McGonagall's mouth twisted down angrily. The professor always had a particular fondness for her owl.

"Those muggles." Harry heard her mutter under her breath again, then she said louder

"Potter, I think it's time you tell me the full story of your time with the muggles." Harriet gulped. That was her Professor's stern voice. She didn't want to talk about her time at the Dursleys. It was bad enough that she had to deal with them every summer, she didn't want to drag them into her life at Hogwarts. She prepared to argue with McGonagall, but instead the truth burst out. The whole undiluted truth. Once she started, she couldn't stop. Tears fell from her eyes as she recounted the first time she realized she was never going to be loved by the Dursleys. Anger burst in her chest during all of her recountances of Dudley's cruelty. Joy tingled up her hands and toes remembering the first time she realized that she wasn't just Harry, that strange girl that nobody liked, with the good-for-nothing parents, but Harry, the witch, who had wonderful heroes for parents. Then came the first summer with the Dursleys. Harriet left her voice carefully blank while describing every agonizing hungry moment of being locked up and telling her the part where Fred drove George and Ron an illegal car to save her.

Finally Harriet had recounted every single horrible encounter with the Dursleys. What did McGonagall think of her? Why did she outline every single part of her life? Shame filled Harriet. Professor McGonagall probably thought she was an _idiot_. She looked up from her lap, which had happened sometime during her explanation, and flinched. McGonagall was _crying_.

"Professor! Are you alright?" Harriet was stunned. Did she hurt herself? Why was she crying? Harriet started to get up from her seat, but McGonagall ushered her back down.

"Potter, I'm truly sorry for what you've gone through." Harriet shrugged uncomfortably.

"It's alright, professor. It really wasn't all bad. There were some good memories too, and at least I haven't been brought up like Malfoy- er sorry, Professor." Harriet winced slightly at her slip up. It was generally a spoken rule not to bad mouth other students around the very stern and fair Gryffindor head of house. McGonagall waved away her mistake.

"Nevermind that now Potter." She paused delicately here, as though trying to find the right words for this situation. "Potter, would you like different living arrangements during the summer?" Harry sat back in shock. Could she actually leave the Dursleys and never come back?

"Y-yes!" Harriet stuttered a bit as her heart leapt into her throat. McGonagall gave her one of her rare smiles.

"Then, I suppose, I could try to find something for you Potter, although I must caution you not to get your hopes up." Harriet nodded absentmindedly, as though she wasn't already dreaming of a family that would love her just like the Weasleys did to Ron, or Mr. and Mrs. Granger to Hermione.

"Thank you so much Professor!" After exclaiming this, Harriet, in one of her worst displays of recklessness she had ever had, got up from her chair, rushed around the desk and threw her arms around McGonagall in a hug. Harriet froze when she realized who she was hugging. Harriet didn't normally hug people, as she had been discouraged rather strongly to perform any sort of action like this at the Dursleys. Harriet tried to pull back, starting to apologize, when she felt McGonagall gently put her arms around her and pat her almost gingerly on her back. Harriet had never felt anything so much like a mother's touch before. Not that Mrs. Weasley was bad at hugs, but Mrs. Weasleys hugs always felt like Harry was just another of the boys. McGonagall's hugs made her feel as though she was actually someone's daughter, not just another one of the boys. She realized the Professor McGonagall was a better hugger than Mrs. Weasley was.

"Thank you." Harriet reiterated her earlier thanks, at a much quieter level once they broke apart. McGonagall's eyes were still misty and kind as she replied.

"You are very welcome Potter. Now, go back to your common room, I will let you know if I have found anything." Harriet smiled back at her.

"Yes, Professor!"

...


End file.
